Obesity has now reached epidemic proportions in North America leading many health and nutritional specialist to start recommending a shift from meat based diets to plant based ones.
"The great thing about eating vegetarian is that typically, you can lose weight without actually cutting back on how much you eat," says Dr. Neal Barnard author of Eat Right, Live Longer and Food that Fights Pain. "If you simply replace animal products such as chicken, beef, milk, and pork with beans, vegetables, pasta, and rice, you'll burn calories faster and reduce your fat intake."
Meat and dairy products contain little to no complex carbohydrates and are high in fat.
Plant based food are high in carbohydrates and fibre and have little to no fat.
Carbohydrates are coverted by our body into energy and are burned off easily, fat is stored as fat and isn't easy to get rid of.
Meat and dairy consumers are also more likely to gain weigh easier as they grow older.
After studying young and middle aged men in 1982 and again in 1992, the American Cancer Society concluded that those who ate the most meat products on a weekly basis gained more weight over time than those who ate less meat and more plant based food.
Obesity is the highest cause of death in the U.S, only second to smoking says Dr. Joanne Manson, endocrinologist at Harvard University.
Obesity has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, gall bladder disease, stroke, and some forms of cancer reports the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The American Heart Association says that "even small reductions in weight can lower blood pressure, reduce concentrations of fat in the bloodstream, and improve sugar metabolism."
Dr. Dean Ornish, author of Eat More, Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish's Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly, puts his patient on vegetarian diets to reverse the affects of heart disaese.
"There is only one way to fully satisfy your appetite with delicious foods, and stay trim and healthy for a life time. . . that's a low-fat vegetarian diet with fruits and vegetables and a bit of exercise," says Dr. John McDougall the founder and director of the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss.
VEGAN RECIPES TO SATISFY THOSE MEAT AND DAIRY CRAVINGS
